Posts Tagged ‘birthday’

A very happy birthday to… none other then Karen Evans, administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology (IT) at the Office of Management and Budget.

Evans has been enormously influential over the years — particularly in this role, which services as the de factor government CIO. And, agree or disagree with her — and I have done both — and while even she acknowledges that she can be a difficult boss sometimes. All of that aside, there is no doubt that she is passionate and dedicated to government service and agency missions. And, as I have grown to know her better personally, she is a very honest and honorable person.

Unfortunately, the biggest event on this date in history… well, this event strikes just a bit too close to home these days — it is the stock market crash of 1929. Any idea the percentage that the market dropped on that day? I’ll give you part of the answer — it dropped some 38 points.

It’s the anniversary of Black Tuesday, which happened in 1929 — the worst stock market crash in the history of the United States. The economy had been so good during the 1920s that people kept speculating in the markets, so stock prices were too high, much higher than the stocks themselves were worth. When they suddenly fell, it was a snowball effect. People had borrowed money to buy stocks, thinking that they could turn around and sell the stocks at a profit, and now they went bankrupt. On Black Tuesday, stock prices fell so fast that by the end of the day many companies couldn’t sell their shares at any price.

Black Tuesday was the beginning of the Great Depression. By 1932, more than 100,000 businesses had failed and 13 million people had lost their jobs.

On Black Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points to 260, a drop of 12.8%. The deluge of selling overwhelmed the ticker tape system that normally gave investors the current prices of their shares. Telephone lines and telegraphs were clogged and were unable to cope. This information vacuum only led to more fear and panic. The technology of the New Era, much celebrated by investors previously, now served to deepen their suffering.

Black Tuesday was a day of chaos. Forced to liquidate their stocks because of margin calls, overextended investors flooded the exchange with sell orders. The glamour stocks of the age saw their values plummet. Across the two days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 23%.

By the end of the week of November 11, the index stood at 228, a cumulative drop of 40 percent from the September high. The markets rallied in succeeding months but it would be a false recovery that led unsuspecting investors into the worst economic crisis of modern times. The Dow Jones Industrial Average would lose 89% of its value before finally bottoming out in July 1932.

Want to find out more — which Simpsons star was born today… which senator was born today… and earlier we told you about the birthday of one of Charlie’s Angels — another “Angel” shares Evans’ birthday today… Find out more after the break…

It’s the birthday of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, (books by this author) born in Röcken, a village in Prussia (1844). His most famous book is called Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883). Nietzsche is famous for claiming that “God is dead,” but what he actually said is, “God is dead … and we have killed him!”

It’s the birthday of the poet Virgil, (books by this author) born Publius Vergilius Maro near Mantua, Italy, 70 B.C.E. The government asked Virgil to write a poem persuading Romans who had left the countryside to return home and become farmers again. He wrote The Georgics, a kind of poetic farming manual about grain production, trees, animal husbandry, and beekeeping. The emperor was so impressed that he gave Virgil a generous stipend, and the poet spent the rest of his life working on his epic poem, The Aeneid.

On October 15, 1972, Jackie Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the second game of the World Series commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his becoming the first African-American to play in modern Major League Baseball. His Major League career began in earnest on April 15, 1947, when played in his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Following his retirement from baseball, Robinson worked as vice president for personnel at Chock Full O’ Nuts from 1957 to 1964. He was also active with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In December 1956, the NAACP had recognized Robinson with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African American. Robinson chaired the NAACP’s million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957 and was a member of the board of directors until 1967.

Many other groups also honored Robinson. In July 1962, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held a testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Although SCLC president Martin Luther King was not able to attend, King’s speech recognized the positive impact of Robinson’s achievements beyond baseball.

Happy birthday to Helen Mosher, who is the New Media Editor for AFCEA’sSIGNAL Magazine. She is one of the hardest working “virtual” people I know — and absolutely passionate about innovative ways to use technology… in publishing… in government… She Twitters… she has built AFCEA’s Second Life island… she blogs — in fact, she work blogs and she off-work blogs. And she just got married, so… it has been an exciting year for her.

I should note that Signal magazine and I are in talks about me writing a column for their monthly magazine… so there you go — transparency.

Anyway, happy birthday to Mosher.

On this date in history:

* in 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

* 1890, Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th United States president and highly respected American general, was born.

* in 1968, the first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.

* in 1979 Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scored the first of his National Hockey League record 894 goals in a home game against the Vancouver Cancucks.

It’s the birthday of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, born in London in 1644. He was the son of an admiral, and even after he became a Quaker, he continued to wear splendid clothes and to carry his sword to Friends meetings. Read more about Penn on the Library of Congress’s ‘on this day in history’ page.

On this Oct. 13, a big DorobekInsider slice of birthday cake to Steve Ressler.

I mentioned Ressler earlier this year — he was part of the freshman class of FCW’s Rising Star award winners. In the years since then, Ressler has become a friend. He is one of those people who just can look at problems in new and innovative ways. (I hate those people! Actually, I LOVE them!) He was one of the co-founders of the Young Government Leaders, and now is the pervayor of the social networking site GovLoop, which is a social networking site for feds. Federal News Radio had Ressler on our mid-day program, InDepth with Francis Rose. You can hear that interview here. [.mp3]

So… happy birthday Ressler.

As public radio’s Writer’s Almanac reports, it is also the birthday of Margaret Thatcher and Paul Simon.

It’s the birthday of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, born in Grantham, England, in 1925. She said, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”…

It’s the birthday of singer and songwriter Paul Simon, born in Newark, New Jersey, (1941). In 1964, he and his friend Art Garfunkel recorded a folk album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. It was a flop, and Paul Simon moved back in with his parents. But without telling Simon and Garfunkel, a producer added electric guitar, bass, and drums to the song “The Sound of Silence” and released it as a single. It went to No. 1 on the pop charts.

It is also the birthday on controversial comedian Lenny Bruce (10/13/1925 – 8/3/1966), who was actually tried on obscenity charges. You can read the NYT’s obit of Bruce here.

Other big events on this date in history:

1775 The Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet. (Happy birthday to the Navy!)

1792 The cornerstone of the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

1960 Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy participated in the third televised debate of the presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, Calif., and Kennedy in New York.

A very happy birthday to Steve Krauss — one of the government community’s rising stars… literally. Krauss was in FCW’s inaugural year of the Rising Star awards and he was one of the people who helped me get the Rising Star awards going. He is works with AFCEA’s Bethesda, MD chapter and is a past president of Bethesda’s Young AFCEANs. Like Steve Ressler, who I mentioned previously, he’s a doer.

Important events on this date:
* 1950 The comic strip “Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz was first published.
* 1869 Political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India. (10/2/1869 – 1/30/1948). (Read the NYT obit of Gandhi from 1948 here.)
* 1890 Comedian Groucho Marx (10/2/1890 – 8/19/1977) was born in New York.

Nick has had a very exciting year — welcoming the newest Wakeman into the world.

On this date in history:

It was this week in 1066 that William the Conqueror of Normandy first arrived on British soil. (Read more here.)

In 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the famed American novelist of the Jazz Age, was born.
1755… John Marshall, (9/24/1755 – 7/6/1835), the fourth chief justice of the United States, was born in Germantown, Virginia. Marshall also served as a congressman and as Secretary of State.

1789… Congress passed the First Judiciary Act, which provided for an attorney general and a Supreme Court.
1869… Financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market, sending Wall Street into a panic and leaving thousands of investors in financial ruin.
1960… The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Va.
1968… “60 Minutes” premiered on CBS.

Until recently, Young was deputy administrator for e-government and information technology. That job has since been made a career appointment being filled by Mike Howell, who came to the post from the Interior Department, where he had been serving as the CIO. Young is still at OMB — although we hear he is looking for a private sector job.

So on this date in history:

* In 1792, The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
* In 1937, “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien was published.
* In 1970, “NFL Monday Night Football” debuted on ABC.